SERVICE LEARNING IN DISTANCE EDUCATION: Foreign Language Learning Environments

In general education, in particular foreign language education, can be acknowledged as a lifelong learning process which can be transformed beyond the borders in global sense. Learning a foreign language requires proficiency in four basic skills which are reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Of these skills, speaking and listening are the most daunting tasks for learners and create obstacles when learners of target language do not get the chance of meeting native speakers. Such obstacles can be overwhelmed by integrating certain applications into education process. Service-learning through the internet as a teaching method can be considered one of the most striking one of those applications for foreign language learners. In this paper, the benefits of service-learning are discussed and some suggestions are offered for introducing this method in foreign language settings. By implementing service-learning, it is concluded that learners of any foreign language may get the chance of communicating with native speakers during the course time in foreign language without going abroad. Such an application may also enhance learners to get information about foreign culture by raising awareness of “otherness” and comparing other culture and their own culture. In addition, service-learning as a method of teaching, learning and reflecting combines academic classroom curriculum with meaningful service from the members of learning community and may generate conditions in which lifelong learning will continue.